Well it appears I have fallen behind
in my blogging and the task at hand is more than a little daunting. This and my overwhelming laziness at the
moment, which I will attribute to being sick for the last few days, have kept
me from attempting to recall the countless blog-worthy experiences of the last
week and a half. However, I fully
realize that it must be done and that no better time will arise, so here I
am.
I left you anticipating my trip
to Kolhapur to stay with my host uncle’s family for the beginning of the
Ganpati festival. I do not remember
exactly where I picked up my belief that Kolhapur was in some way more rural
than Pune, but this is utterly false. It
may have been the phrases “small town” and “mainly agricultural” that put this
idea in my head, but in reality, Kolhapur is a city of over half a million with
little more green space than Pune. Regardless,
I was lucky enough to get several hours of nature on the long drive. When we finally arrived, it was good to see
the familiar faces of my host grandparents welcoming me into my temporary home
and asking how I had been.
The Ganpati festival involves
each family having their own shrine and praying at it several times each
day. This short ceremony involves a lot
of chanting, clapping, and a spin.
Needless to say I could not follow the chanting (not in English) but I
am an expert clapper/spinner so I rocked those parts as well as I could. Each night, we traveled to another relative’s
house to perform the ceremony. 
On the 20th, we took a
short trip to a small village outside Kolhapur to visit more relatives. The village was surrounded by sugar cane
fields the way much of Southern Minnesota is covered in corn fields. This realization made me feel a little more
at home. After breakfast, I was given a
small tour of the average house in this village. I was surprised when, after walking out the
back door, I found myself face to face with a cow. Everyone was anxious to take my picture with
the cow and I got a chance to make up for missing one of my annual Minnesota
State Fair rituals.
After seeing a few more houses
and some small shops, I was led to a small procession of mini dhols parading
around the town. The next moment my
forehead was covered with a yellow powder and the traditional vertical red line,
a drum slung around my neck, and I was enthusiastically leading the procession
through the streets with a huge smile on my face. My excitement almost matched that of the
townspeople taking pictures of me.
After a few minutes of fun, I
took off the drum and headed over to a place that was serving lunch for a bunch
of men. Somebody whipped up a turban and put it on my head and then I posed for about 100
pictures of everybody handing me a coconut.
Apparently this is a great sign of respect. Plus, everyone loves getting their photo
taken by or with the foreigner, regardless of whether or not they will ever actually
see the picture. Again I was given a
small drum and asked to beat a simple rhythm to death for their
entertainment. Their enthusiasm made the
event very fun, and I have been told they are putting my picture on the city
posters for some large event. I would be
lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the attention.
The next day we headed home so I
could participate in the Rotary program for the next several days with Pune’s
exchange students and the additional four staying with us for a week. Unfortunately, I arrived an hour too late to
host one of the boys in my apartment, but it was really exciting to meet some
other exchange students. The newcomers
were French and German with a boy and a girl belonging to both countries. Upon my arrival, we were immediately herded
onto a small bus and brought to the inaugural ceremony for the Pune
Festival. This festival coincides with the
Ganpati celebrations, and shows off the variety of cultural activity in
Pune. We were all be-turbaned (by this I
mean we wore turbans) and got special foreigner’s seating. After several hours of waiting, the show
finally began. It consisted of several
cultural dances dedicated to Ganesh followed by an obscenely long bit of
speaking in Marathi recognizing a bunch of important people in attendance. That part was boring.
After it was over, we all went
out for Chinese food and I ordered some familiar sweet and sour chicken. This turned out to be more of a chicken and
vegetable soup with a sweet-and-sour-sauce broth, but it was enjoyable
nonetheless. It was good to get to know
the other exchange students a little better over dinner and we had some
interesting conversation about which things India and Europe have in common
versus Europe and the United States.
Though I’m still a week and a
half behind and have a ton left to say, I think I’ll cut it off here. My apologies for putting this post off for so
long. Be assured, the next one will
cover more of my adventures with all the exchange students and will come much
quicker than this one. Because there is
no easy break in the stories of these two posts, I will leave you with a To Be
Continued…soon, I promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment